Saturday

So yeah this year is about to end
and there is nothing we can do about it. This year has a fair share of ups and
downs, well at least for me. I won’t be dwelling on the downs. I’ve done things
that I’m not really proud of but I don’t regret them. I know things like those
happen for a reason. I’ve learned my lessons and will still learn some more. I
guess what I’m saying is that I’m thankful for everything: family, friends,
people who support and believe in me, pets, Zephyr, giveaways I’ve won, couple
of life lessons, connecting and meeting with people I look up to (and stalk),
having been able to know myself more and setting straight goals in my life
and all the other blessings. Again, I'm very thankful.

The year that hopefully will be

New Year is fast approaching
which means it’s time for New Year’s resolutions once again. I have a couple of
them but I won’t be posting them here so that I’ll be the only one who knows
that I fail myself for the nth time. Bwahaha! ^o^ Seriously though, I just don’t
want them to backfire on me knowing that I posted it where everyone knows about
it. So what I’ll be posting instead are the improvements I want to do/see in my
blog.

Limit lengthy posts – you probably noticed by now that I tend to write lengthy
posts (like this one) and I don’t want the readers to bore to death with my seemingly
irrelevant stories, comments and whatever.

Better photos - I've been taking photos with Zephyr (my dslr) for almost a year now and I can say that I've improve. But still, I need to work hard a lot on my photography skills and this blog will witness that magical journey with Zephyr.

Change layout and banner – One of the things I’ve learned this year
is basic html and css. What a better way to use them in my own blog, right? I
also want my banner to be customized.

Have identity – I’ve been blogging for a year now and I don’t know
where this blog is leading up to. But we’ll see. I intended to make this as my outlet
for things that’s happening in my life and it served me that way until it
became a burden to me to post regularly and I want that to change.

I know this is not blog related but the ultimate thing that I
want for next year is to be a better person I want to be better in all aspects of my
life. Pursue dreams and endeavors. Be more creative and hardworking. Make this year my year!

So that’s it. I’m about to finish
my obligatory year-end post with what I’ve said, this year is about to end
and we can’t do anything about it. Earth will continue to rotate but what we
can do is make the New Year (and all the succeeding years) a better year for
all of us.

Monday

Being an avid fan of Valerie Chua, I’ve been dying to attend her first exhibit called Backyard of
the Universe since its opening. Sadly, I can’t seem to do it. So when I found
out that she was giving a talk together with other artists last week, I knew my
chance finally came.

The day came and I finally met Valerie in person and asked her if
I could take a photo of her and she agreed. I really want to have a picture
with her. But at the time, there was no one around and I don’t want to risk taking
our photo the selca way because I’m not good with it. Anyway, she is really
nice and approachable. I even asked her where the exact location of her exhibit
(it was inside Heima) but she wasn’t sure if it was open.

I finally reached Heima but I got disappointed because it
was closed. Well, not entirely closed. When I got there, there was a close sign
on the door but there were two ladies inside: a customer and a cashier. I tried
to get their attention but I didn’t think they saw or hear me. After several
seconds another lady went inside (apparently, I didn’t check if the door was
really locked, that’s stupid of me I know) and asked her if I could enter, she
nodded. Whew! That’s a relief. So, I started taking photos. The paintings are
really wonderful in real life rather than seeing them online. If I only had the
money, I would really buy one. There were fourteen paintings in total. The one I
super like is the piece called The Fall
is Short on Higher Ground. I hate the fact that my photos didn’t give
justice at all. Oh,
if you want to see her other paintings in larger view, kindly go to her blog.

After some time, the two ladies went outside and when I turned
around the cashier was waiting for me outside because she would lock the door. So
I hurried taking photos, it would be embarrassing on my part if I kept her
waiting. Besides, Valerie’s talk was about to start and I didn’t want to miss
that. Thus, that explains why I only got few photos (yet this entry is quite long, haha). But that’s okay. I still
got what I want even though I saw the exhibit very briefly.

Apparently, it was a roller coaster ride for me that day. But
it was all worth it. I’ve learned from the talk, saw Valerie in person and saw her
lovely works. What would you say? Hitting three birds with one stone eh. Having said that, I'm ending this post with my favorite piece from the exhibit.

P.S. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Heima. I often
see features about them on magazines, blogs and television and I really like
their furniture, analog and paper stuff. It’s my first time being there and I discovered
that they offer a lot of products ranging from stationeries, cute lampshades, some
artworks, even vinyl records and a lot of awesome stuff. Btw, Heima’s scent was
so refreshing. It
smelled like fresh-cut wood in Spring. And lastly, Happy Holidays! ♥♥♥

How’s everyone? I apologize for the long absence. Actually, I
intended to attend a handful of events since November and blog about them but there
were things that always got in the way. It’s either I suddenly became lazy,
unpredictable weather, lack of companion, venues themselves and time
constraints. But hey, I still managed to attend one last week, which is
probably the last event I’ll be attending this year. I’m talking about Heima’s Design Discussions 2 which I accidentally stumbled upon the net.

The second installment of HDD2 features talks from guest
artists: Kat Encanto on Design and Innovation, Dan Matutina on Graphic Design,
Fozzy Dayrit on Calligraphy, Valerie Chua on Illustration, and Diego Mapa on Music
and Tarsius (his new band). I always like attending talks regarding art in
general but what I’m really excited about this is that Valerie Chua would come.
Valerie is one of my local favorite illustrators. Also, at the time, her first
exhibit was still running on the same venue. So, it’s obligatory for me to go
to the talk, see her exhibit and ultimately, see her in person. The first photo below was a slide from Dan Matutina's lecture. The actual slide had a dog hanging from one of the letters and a man trying to save it. But that detail was lost when I post-process the photo. :( The second one was when Fozzy Dayrit was demonstrating her craft.

The event also coincided with Heima’s launching of its new
product which is MT Washi masking tapes. Basically, they are masking tapes
available in various colors and patterns. But there’s more to it than that. MT
has a lot of uses ranging from sticking notes and photos, giving oomph to ordinary
things, even making an actual artwork out of it. MT’s patterns are way too
cute. I’m certainly going to buy some next time.

During the first hour of the talk, there were also other
guest artists who were doing some artworks using MT. Valerie also participated
on that one. After they were done, their works were displayed for people to see
(you can see some of the artworks below). Artists: 1) Andrea Cervantes, 2) Nic Lim, 3) Irene Sy, 4) MJ and Rian Of Heima, 5) Valerie Chua.

Also, here are other photos from the event.

By the way, I didn’t include photos of Valerie’s exhibit on
this post because I decided to make a separate post about it right after this. Speaking
of Valerie, I’ll end this post with her advice on aspiring artists. This was
also taken from her slides during her talk. So that’s it folks. :)

Hello! My name is Tolens and you have stumbled upon my humble site. This is where I post my photos, (mis)adventures, inspirations, random musings and reviews of some stuff. More about me here. Enjoy reading.